Maybe because it was the weekend. The arcade was quite crowded. It seemed like all the 2030s generation in the area had gathered to feel the ‘latte’ nostalgia. Because it wasn’t small to begin with, it seemed like they could enjoy games without anyone recognizing them, but even so, Hongdan thought he’d done well to put a cap on Seonha and pulled his wrist.
“Let’s do that one first. It’s the easiest.”
What Hongdan pointed to was a vertically long table. Next to it, a couple was already waging war over the outcome of the game. Looking at the distorted face of the omega among them, it seemed like a war of a different meaning would begin once this round ended. Still, using that as a textbook, he could teach the Young Master, who’d never been to an arcade even though he was almost thirty, about the common people’s folk games.
“Try catching it.”
Hongdan placed a plastic paddle in Seonha’s hand. Then he forcibly pressed down his shoulder to match their heights and made him watch the fierce battle at the next table.
“It’s called air hockey, the rules are simple. See that gap there? That’s a kind of goal, right? With this paddle you’re holding, that thing. That palm-sized thing. The person who gets that puck in more within the time limit wins. Easy.”
“Yeah. Are you good at this, Hongdan?”
“Well, my win rate so far is about 70%.”
Since most of the time it was with Jung Hyeonchan who had absolutely no connection with games.
He didn’t bother voicing the uncomfortable truth that his win rate was nothing more than an inflated figure from choosing his opponents well. Instead, he nonchalantly walked to one court and jerked his chin at Seonha.
“Go over there, hurry.”
“Mm… but you know.”
But for some reason Seonha was hesitating. Hongdan tilted his head.
“Huh, why. You don’t like this?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Seonha stopped mid-sentence and just timidly wiggled his index finger. He even chewed his lower lip—anyone could see he had something he wanted from Hongdan.
Separate from whether he’d grant it or not, Hongdan felt frustrated first and took a step to urge an answer. But at the same time, Seonha opened his mouth again.
“Can we… make a bet or something?”
“A bet? If you win this?”
Hongdan pointed at the table and asked back. Then Seonha spread all five fingers.
“Um, no. Five total including this one!”
“Five?”
Hongdan frowned. He hadn’t planned to stay here that long. Naturally, Seonha’s words sped up.
“I-if I win even one out of the five games we play today, a wish! Just grant me one wish. Just one…”
Though he ended up getting timid in the end.
Seonha deeply bowed his head and neatly brought his toes together. Like a criminal who’d committed a grave crime waiting for punishment, yet also like a graceful new bride before her wedding night thanks to his well-built frame.
Hongdan held back a sneer and stood with his weight on one leg crookedly. Then he crossed his arms like a meanie.
“If I have to grant a wish even if you only win once out of five times, isn’t that too disadvantageous for me?”
“I’m coming here for the first time today, but you’ve probably tried all of these at least once, Hongdan. You know I haven’t really done this kind of thing anywhere else either.”
“Hmm…”
Actually, Hongdan had intended to accept the brazen provocation as soon as he saw that docile appearance. He wasn’t an arcade addict, but as he said, there wasn’t a single game here that Hongdan hadn’t tried. No matter how much Yeon Seonha could do anything above average, it would be difficult for him to beat him with just one day’s practice today.
Simply put, he just pretended to think about it because he wanted to observe that state a bit more.
Hongdan wore a leisurely smile and nodded his head.
“Alright, well. Do your best, let’s see.”
“Yeah! Thanks, Hongdan.”
A childlike innocent smile bloomed instantly. Hongdan was in a good enough mood today to give a faint empty laugh at the sight.
“Yeah, always be grateful for the things I bestow and respect this hyung.”
“Mm, of course. I always love you and respect you.”
Even when Seonha followed his words and mixed in a strange word, he just lightly ignored it instead of scolding.
Hongdan immediately picked up the paddle and pushed the puck to Seonha first. Then, unlike Seonha’s, he showed off his gentle egg-shaped facial line to the fullest.
“Newbie first.”
***
Starting with air hockey, then shooting, fighting, racing. Seonha didn’t deviate even slightly from Hongdan’s expectations and lost four events in a row.
Leaving aside winning or losing, the real problem was that there wasn’t even a single game that was properly competitive. He’d worried whether five games might take too long, but Seonha made Hongdan’s concern into a trivial old woman’s worry in one go. Most of the time he couldn’t even last 5 minutes and collapsed gloriously.
During the racing game, he even did a free dive off a cliff as soon as it started, so Hongdan gave him one more chance. But in the second round too, he stayed stuck with his head shoved into the guardrail unable to escape, ending up just watching until Hongdan passed the finish line. In fact, all his losing patterns were like this.
As defeats piled up, Seonha’s shoulders gradually sank. At this rate, it seemed like they’d soon see them touching the ground. His eyes that had become extremely murky were truly on the verge of tears.
Hongdan glanced at the sad sack following behind him. Yet he found it funny on one hand that the guy was sticking close to his back taking quick steps as if afraid to lose him. Hongdan forcibly swallowed his sneer and spoke gently.
“Mm… isn’t there anything you’re confident in?”
Seonha just shook his head without saying anything. He wasn’t even looking at Hongdan.
That’s why you shouldn’t suggest making bets…
He became curious about what kind of great wish he was trying to make, but on the other hand he was also worried.
Hongdan looked around to find something suitable for the last event. Obviously throwing the game was dangerous, and if Yeon Seonha stayed dejected the whole time, that would be troublesome in its own way, so he needed something appropriate in the middle ground.
Something still advantageous to him but wouldn’t crush the guy’s hope…
“Ah!”
Hongdan, who’d been turning his head busily like a meerkat, suddenly clapped his palms together. Only then did Seonha’s gaze reach Hongdan. And Seonha faced an expression he was seeing for the first time in a really long while.
A smile brimming with vitality, dazzlingly bright.
Seonha couldn’t even part his lips and just blinked his eyes. If Hongdan hadn’t grabbed his thumb tip and shaken it back and forth, he probably would have thought he was still in a dream.
“Let’s do that one for the last one, that. Basketball. At least that doesn’t have separate controls so it should be doable for you too. You’re originally good at ball sports and stuff.”
Seonha finally looked down at where they touched. Even though it was just fingertips, this was the first time Hongdan had held his hand first since their reunion.
His toes curled inside his sneakers wanting to intertwine all five fingers and pull him into his arms just like that. It was a desire he’d suppressed hundreds, no, thousands of times while living together, but today especially it felt harder to endure.
When the one who should be noisy just kept his mouth tightly shut, Hongdan tilted his head and met his gaze.
“Don’t like it? Or do you want to do whack-a-mole or something?”
Hongdan’s eyes sparkled innocently as if they didn’t notice his dark intentions. Facing that light, Seonha smiled plainly and replied.
“No, I like it.”
“Okay, then let’s go.”
As soon as Hongdan heard the answer, he immediately headed toward the simple basketball hoop. Before the warmth of Hongdan that had touched his hand completely disappeared, Seonha answered once more as if possessed.
“I like it, Hongdan.”
“Yeah, I got it. Let’s go, before someone else takes it.”
He couldn’t see that face he’d glimpsed earlier again. Hongdan didn’t even look back at Seonha. Although this wasn’t a rejection of his existence itself, seeing that resolute back kept making him thirsty and his chest ache.
So he said it once more.
“…I like you, Hongdan.”
He quietly conveyed his sincerity. But that low voice didn’t reach Hongdan and just scattered away.
If it had reached him, he wouldn’t be brightly waving toward him like now.
Hongdan, who’d arrived at the basketball hoop first, called Seonha.
“Hey! Aren’t you coming?”
Seonha immediately erased the gloomy look remaining on his face and put on the expression most familiar to Hongdan.
“Yeah, coming-!”
“Why are you dawdling like this?”
“Hehe… just. Your back view was pretty so I was looking at it.”
“Ew, gross.”
“It’s not gross! You saw me wash cleanly today too. I’ll smell the same as you, so sniff and check-“
“That’s disgusting, you bastard.”
***
In high school, Seonha definitely wasn’t the type to have many friends. People gathered on their own thanks to his brilliant background, but should I say that Seonha himself activated his bullshit skills with everything he had to push them all away. Anyway, the point is he absolutely, absolutely wasn’t a typical high school boy who hung around in groups during break time or lunch to play basketball or soccer.
Then how did Hongdan know that Seonha was pretty good at sports?
It was solely thanks to PE practical evaluations.
Hongdan was originally a person with absolutely zero athletic ability. He was pretty good at running at least, but from Hongdan’s own perspective, this was purely thanks to his body being lighter than others.
Therefore, to get an A in practical skills, he had to make the most of the PE classes that only happened twice a week. But Seonha repeatedly interfered with such pitiful struggles, and when Hongdan overcame countless hardships and adversities to barely meet the A cutline, Seonha himself would easily receive a perfect score.
There was no way Hongdan could forget that annoying sight. In fact, this was also one of the parts where he was sharpening the blade of revenge.
“Hongdan, are there no separate rules for this? I just need to make it in?”
Seonha asked while handling the basketball. Hongdan wore a benevolent smile and reassured him.
“Yeah yeah. It’s exactly like basketball, just. You probably don’t remember but in senior year only you got a perfect score on the free throw evaluation. You can really win at this.”
“Hongdan… you want to grant my wish. Thank you.”
At the unexpected encouragement, Seonha flushed both cheeks pink. This time too, Hongdan kindly nodded instead of giving needless criticism. In fact, he’d become more generous after winning the previous four games in a row.
“Of course. You’ve been doing so well at playing the diligent wife lately. It’s about time to give you a prize.”
“Mm. I’ll definitely win.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
But Hongdan knew. That this crude game had absolutely nothing to do with actual basketball skills. Rather, guys who acted cocky saying they knew a bit about basketball would fuss around trying to do the proper form, and there were many cases where they’d get lower scores than arcade addicts who were basketball outsiders.
There was no way that innocent Young Master knew this eternal truth. Hongdan was willing to gladly exploit this gap.
Du-dung, 3, 2, 1 Let’s start!
Along with the cheerful sound, Seonha’s arm went up. His eyes also became quite serious as if he was going to the Olympics. Up until this point, Hongdan’s lips were drawing a pretty arc.
Thud-
“Ah shit…”
Even when Seonha hit an amazing home run with his first shot.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m not good at this either. You just need to score about 80 points to win…”
He was saying he was calmly stepping back a couple of steps sending deception disguised as cheering.
But.
good shoot- good shoot- 2 combos! 3 combos! 4 combos!
“…What are you.”
5 combos! 6 combos! 7 combos!
“You haven’t done this before, right…?”
8 combos! 9 combos! 10 combos!
“Hey! You’ve done this before, you bastard!”
